The Mount San Jacinto Natural History Association will hold its next lecture Tuesday, April 13, via Zoom. Ernest Figueroa tells you how you can sign up…
The Mount San Jacinto Natural History Association’s Getting In Touch With Nature lectures are focused on the natural history of the wider area surrounding Mt. San Jacinto State Park and Wilderness, from the desert to the sea. Tuesday’s lecture will be given by Richard Halsey of the California Chaparral Institute, whose topic is “Nature is Wild, People are Human; Hence the Conflict and the Hope.” A question-and-answer period will follow. The lecture starts at 6 p.m. on Zoom, and is limited to 100 participants. See the link below for information on how to sign up.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIvdOmgrj4qHNXIAG1DMFYbjo0jvFsXeQhn
Presentations of the series are on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. Invitations to the zoom lectures will be sent out at least a week in advance. Limited to about 100 Zoom guests, it behooves early registration. Presentations will be followed by a Q&A period.
Lecture: Nature is Wild, People are Human; Hence the Conflict and the Hope
Presented by Richard Halsey
The California Chaparral Institute
The innate desire humans have to control their environment has allowed us to create tools, warm hearths, and remarkable civilizations. Hubris, however, has encouraged a false sense of omnipotence, often leading to crushing myopia; indeed, we often repeat the same mistakes generation after generation. Nature, on the other hand, is wild; although we are lulled into complacency by calm seas and rich crops, Nature inevitably reminds us that the metaphorical gods of Mt. Olympus are still very much in charge. In response to Nature’s power, we react in the moment, motivated by self-interest, forgetting that Nature’s rhythms operate at millennial frequencies unaffected by human ego – the ghostly presence of the Roman Forum and the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde are testaments to the fragility of the human condition. Yet, there is a better path our species can take, a path that uses a map shaped by past successes, mistakes, and a fundamental truth – Nature is an equal partner, if we allow ourselves to listen.
Richard W. Halsey is the founder and director of the California Chaparral Institute, a nonprofit environmental organization that’s dedicated to preserving California’s chaparral – the state’s most characteristic, yet most imperiled, native shrubland ecosystem. Richard is also a writer, photographer, and a guide to help others reconnect with Nature and their wild, inner selves.
You are invited to this Zoom presentation on April 13, 2021 06:00 PM Pacific Time.
